This week, pop star Rihanna released the video of her latest song Man Down, which features her shooting a guy who was abusing her. The song is off her album Loud. However, the video and lyrics are receiving criticism from various parental groups for it being “too explicit” One parental group said that the song is an “an inexcusable, shock-only, shoot-and-kill theme song”. The video features Rihanna shooting a man at a railway station after he was shown trying to attack her at a nightclub. However, Rihanna shot back on her Twitter account saying, “You can’t hide your kids from society, or they’ll never learn how to adapt! This is the REAL WORLD!” and “The music industry isn’t exactly Parents R Us! We have the freedom to make art, LET US! Its your job to make sure they don’t turn out like us.”

Several parental groups are telling cable channel BET to take down and ban the song from the network, but the network is refusing to do so. Regarding the controversial video, BET sent out a presser saying, “The Rihanna Man Down video complied with these guidelines and was approved for air.” But a member at the Parental Television Council said that “if Chris Brown shot a woman in his new video and Bet premiered it, the world would stop. Rihanna should not get a pass.” Brown, of course, domestically assaulted Rihanna back in early 2009 after the Grammy Awards.